Sybil (2007 film)
Encyclopedia
Sybil is a 2007 American
docudrama
directed by Joseph Sargent
. The teleplay
by John Pielmeier is based on the 1973 book of the same name
by Flora Rheta Schreiber
, which fictionalized the story of Shirley Ardell Mason
, who was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. This is the second adaptation of the book, following an Emmy Award
-winning 1976 miniseries that was broadcast by NBC
. The university scenes were filmed at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
In January 2006, The Hollywood Reporter
announced CBS
had greenlight
ed the project, but it was shelved after completion. The film was released in Italy
, New Zealand
, the Dominican Republic
, Brazil
, Norway
, and Hungary
before finally being broadcast in the US by the network on June 7, 2008.
art student Sybil Dorsett is referred to psychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur by Dr. Atcheson, a male colleague who believes the young woman is suffering from female hysteria
. As her treatment progresses, Sybil confesses she frequently experiences blackouts and cannot account for large blocks of time. Wilbur helps her recall a childhood in which she suffered physical
, emotional, and sexual abuse
at the hands of her disturbed mother Hattie, and eventually 16 different identities varying in age and personal traits begin to emerge. Chief among them is Victoria, a French
woman who explains to Dr. Wilbur how she shepherds the various parts of Sybil's whole. Frustrating the therapist are objections raised by her associates, who suspect she has influenced her patient into creating her other selves, and Sybil's father, who refuses to admit his late wife was anything other than a loving mother.
Although she had promised never to hypnotize Sybil, later into the treatment, Dr. Wilbur takes her patient to her home by a lake and hypnotizes her into having all 16 personalities be the same age as she and become just aspects of Sybil. By nightfall Sybil claims she feels different and then emotionally declares her hatred towards her mother.
The last part of the movie tells of the history of the real woman who was known by the pseudonym of Sybil Dorsett.
Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times
said, "The new Sybil . . . is told at such high speed that it becomes more psychiatric variety show
- for our next number, Sybil as a boy! - than the careful excavation of a mind through the life-changing relationship of patient and doctor, which made the original so unforgettable . . . It's essentially a two-woman play, and these particular women do the absolute best they can with what is given them. Lange's Wilbur is unflinching and unflappable, with equal parts compassion and ambition, empathy and bitterness, while Blanchard is a marvel of physical and vocal elasticity, changing into 16 people, often several in the same conversation. The problem is the almost breakneck pace which requires that all emotional nuance be jettisoned in favor of showing the range of the personalities."
In Newsweek
, Joshua Alston said the film "has the infectious scrappiness of a community-theater
troupe, one that isn't that great but has enough conviction to make up for its lack of self-awareness . . . And while I wouldn't watch Sybil a second time, it was raucous, nostalgic fun. I could say it's the worst movie I've seen in some time, but I'd prefer to say it's the best at being not good."
Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant observed the film "is at once a little more true to the original but also, at half the time, rushed . . . Tammy Blanchard has the role that could be either a career-making tour de force or a showoffy mess and pulls it off."
In the Times Herald-Record
, Kevin McDonough said, "Sybil seems to have been written to challenge and reward the serious performer. It is an actor's dream and potential nightmare, a role that calls upon the player to shift voice, tone and personality on a dime . . . Blanchard acquits herself well. She does not eclipse the memory of Field
's Sybil, but it is a performance to remember . . . The saddest thing about this Sybil is its place in the schedule. A film like this used to be showcased during sweeps, not hidden away on a Saturday night in June like some poor relation . . . CBS has shown the movie, its stars and the story extreme disrespect with this treatment."
Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe wondered, "Why bother taking on a classic with limited popular potential when the remake is doomed to pale creatively next to the original? I'm thinking maybe this retelling of the true story . . . was hatched to give actress Tammy Blanchard a big vehicle to suit her big talent . . . Otherwise, this Sybil doesn't quite justify itself . . . The remake feels more like a sketch of a troubled life than a fully realized portrait, which also detracts from its power to break your heart."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
directed by Joseph Sargent
Joseph Sargent
Joseph Sargent is an American film director. He has directed many television movies, but his best known feature film works are probably White Lightning, MacArthur, Nightmares and Jaws: The Revenge, with his most popular film being The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. He has won four Emmy Awards...
. The teleplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by John Pielmeier is based on the 1973 book of the same name
Sybil (book)
Sybil is a 1973 book by Flora Rheta Schreiber about the treatment of Sybil Dorsett for dissociative identity disorder by her psychoanalyst, Cornelia B...
by Flora Rheta Schreiber
Flora Rheta Schreiber
Flora Rheta Schreiber , an American journalist, was the author of the 1973 bestseller Sybil, the story of a woman who suffered from dissociative identity disorder....
, which fictionalized the story of Shirley Ardell Mason
Shirley Ardell Mason
Shirley Ardell Mason was an American psychiatric patient and commercial artist who was reputed to have multiple personality disorder. Her life was fictionalized in 1973 in the book Sybil, and two films of the same name were made in 1976 and 2007...
, who was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. This is the second adaptation of the book, following an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning 1976 miniseries that was broadcast by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. The university scenes were filmed at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
In January 2006, The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
announced CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
had greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
ed the project, but it was shelved after completion. The film was released in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
before finally being broadcast in the US by the network on June 7, 2008.
Plot synopsis
Troubled Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
art student Sybil Dorsett is referred to psychiatrist Cornelia Wilbur by Dr. Atcheson, a male colleague who believes the young woman is suffering from female hysteria
Female hysteria
Female hysteria was a once-common medical diagnosis, made exclusively in women, which is today no longer recognized by modern medical authorities as a medical disorder. Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for many hundreds of years in Western Europe. Hysteria was widely discussed in the...
. As her treatment progresses, Sybil confesses she frequently experiences blackouts and cannot account for large blocks of time. Wilbur helps her recall a childhood in which she suffered physical
Physical abuse
Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...
, emotional, and sexual abuse
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
at the hands of her disturbed mother Hattie, and eventually 16 different identities varying in age and personal traits begin to emerge. Chief among them is Victoria, a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
woman who explains to Dr. Wilbur how she shepherds the various parts of Sybil's whole. Frustrating the therapist are objections raised by her associates, who suspect she has influenced her patient into creating her other selves, and Sybil's father, who refuses to admit his late wife was anything other than a loving mother.
Although she had promised never to hypnotize Sybil, later into the treatment, Dr. Wilbur takes her patient to her home by a lake and hypnotizes her into having all 16 personalities be the same age as she and become just aspects of Sybil. By nightfall Sybil claims she feels different and then emotionally declares her hatred towards her mother.
The last part of the movie tells of the history of the real woman who was known by the pseudonym of Sybil Dorsett.
Principal cast
- Jessica LangeJessica LangeJessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
..... Dr. Cornelia Wilbur - Tammy BlanchardTammy BlanchardTammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...
..... Sybil Dorsett - Eddie Ruiz ..... Dr. Ladysman
- JoBeth WilliamsJoBeth WilliamsJoBeth Williams is an American film and television actress and director, and current President of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation.-Early life:...
... Hattie Dorsett
Critical reception
In his review in the New York Times, Neil Genzlinger noted, "The film has fine performances by Tammy Blanchard in the title role and Jessica Lange as the psychiatrist. It is crisply told and full of powerful scenes. But it is always battling that earlier Sybil . . . [The] story, so revelatory and startling when it was new, is today likely to have the feel of an acting exercise. It is impossible to watch Ms. Blanchard run through her repertory of voices and facial contortions . . . without judging her acting technique. She gets an A, but the viewer’s investment in the story suffers."Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said, "The new Sybil . . . is told at such high speed that it becomes more psychiatric variety show
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
- for our next number, Sybil as a boy! - than the careful excavation of a mind through the life-changing relationship of patient and doctor, which made the original so unforgettable . . . It's essentially a two-woman play, and these particular women do the absolute best they can with what is given them. Lange's Wilbur is unflinching and unflappable, with equal parts compassion and ambition, empathy and bitterness, while Blanchard is a marvel of physical and vocal elasticity, changing into 16 people, often several in the same conversation. The problem is the almost breakneck pace which requires that all emotional nuance be jettisoned in favor of showing the range of the personalities."
In Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, Joshua Alston said the film "has the infectious scrappiness of a community-theater
Community theatre
Community theatre refers to theatrical performance made in relation to particular communities—its usage includes theatre made by, with, and for a community...
troupe, one that isn't that great but has enough conviction to make up for its lack of self-awareness . . . And while I wouldn't watch Sybil a second time, it was raucous, nostalgic fun. I could say it's the worst movie I've seen in some time, but I'd prefer to say it's the best at being not good."
Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant observed the film "is at once a little more true to the original but also, at half the time, rushed . . . Tammy Blanchard has the role that could be either a career-making tour de force or a showoffy mess and pulls it off."
In the Times Herald-Record
Times Herald-Record
The Times Herald-Record, often referred to as The Record or Middletown Record in its coverage area, is a daily newspaper published in Middletown, New York, covering the northwest suburbs of New York City. It covers Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties in New York; Pike County in Pennsylvania; and...
, Kevin McDonough said, "Sybil seems to have been written to challenge and reward the serious performer. It is an actor's dream and potential nightmare, a role that calls upon the player to shift voice, tone and personality on a dime . . . Blanchard acquits herself well. She does not eclipse the memory of Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
's Sybil, but it is a performance to remember . . . The saddest thing about this Sybil is its place in the schedule. A film like this used to be showcased during sweeps, not hidden away on a Saturday night in June like some poor relation . . . CBS has shown the movie, its stars and the story extreme disrespect with this treatment."
Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe wondered, "Why bother taking on a classic with limited popular potential when the remake is doomed to pale creatively next to the original? I'm thinking maybe this retelling of the true story . . . was hatched to give actress Tammy Blanchard a big vehicle to suit her big talent . . . Otherwise, this Sybil doesn't quite justify itself . . . The remake feels more like a sketch of a troubled life than a fully realized portrait, which also detracts from its power to break your heart."